Like many other readers of this blog I’ve been look for a good head to head comparison of Apple’s Aperture vs. Adobe’s Lightroom. I make the comparison myself but I have neither the time nor a Mac of my own. So the notes on this page merely represent what I’ve learned from others.
Hands down the best work is coming from a pair of O’Reilly Digital Media Bloggers: Micah Walter and Michael Clark. Micah is an Aperture user trying Lightroom for 10 days, Michael is a Lightroom user trying Aperture. Between them they’re starting to paint a very interesting comparison. BTW Spend the time to read the comments they add alot of extra information.
from Micah:
- Special Event: Aperture Vs. Lightroom
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Let the Games Begin
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 1 – Lightroom’s Library Module
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 2 – The Rainbow Filter? Note in the main text Micah misses the Virtual Copies functionality. Michael Green and Eric both provide corrections.
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 3 – The Develop Module “Lightroom’s Develop module, in a nutshell, is awesome!”
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 4 – The World in Black and White
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 5 – Ready for the Web Micah
complains that you can’t save the web galleries you create – however
the commenters that these settings are saved with the collection.
However I’m not sure if that was quite what Micah was looking for. So
the juries out on this one. - Lightroom Vs. Aperture: Day 6 – Exporting Images
- Aperture Vs. Lightroom: Day 7 – River Rotations
- Aperture vs Lightroom – An O’Reilly “Inside Aperture” Wrap up
from Michael:
- Lightroom vs. Aperture: Versions and Stacking After playing with stacking in both Lightroom and Aperture, I have to say that it is much better done in Aperture…
- Lightroom vs. Aperture: Loupe Views Compared Interesting Michael prefers Lightroom’s zoom
- Lightroom vs. Aperture: Synching Adjustments
- Lightroom vs. Aperture: The Results
Aperture Pros:
- Browser display more metadata than Lightroom
- You
can make adjustments to your images at anytime – without having to
switch to the Develop module (via the Heads up Display). Several people
(David Medina among them) make final changes when view the images in
the contact sheet. - Light table
- Can stack with a collection (collections are just virtual groupings of pictures). This seems like a pretty minor limitation. I would like to know how this would be really useful.
- Better color profile support
- Support dual screens
- Black, Gray and White point settings.
Lightroom pros:
- Doesn’t require a new Mac ($$$$)
- Can import all of my existing tagging information from Photoshop Elements (yes I’ve been slumming it for the past few years).
- Can assign standard metadata to every image on import
- Presets – a bunch come stock and you can find many more on the web.
- Better spot removal, cloning and healing tool.
- Faster, Faster, Faster
- Works well with limited real estate (many users comment that Aperture really wants a 30 inch display or two monitors).
- Auto-Sync has fewer steps and so is a bit faster than Lift and Stamp to use.
Cool discoveries:
- Jeffery’s Lightroom Metadata-Viewer Preset Builder
- A user’s comparison (I can’t find the name from the blog)
- Ars Technica review of Lightroom
- Digital Freak also reviews both Caveat Emptor – he appears to have missed several important features in Aperture. Although these mistakes are corrected in the comments I wonder what else he missed.
Aperture
seems to have important items in its favour: Light table and the
ability to adjust the image anywhere (not just develop). However I’m
leaning towards Lightroom since I’m not tied to using a Mac forever,
speed and better healing tools.
Which app will you use? Have I missed any good comparisons?
Wow – to all of Mike’s readers who’ve been flooding in – its great to have you here. Several people have asked for a comparison of Aperture and Lightroom to LightZone: details. Also of interest: Lightroom isn’t a reaction to Aperture.
